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Zoey
Zoey is one of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead. Her original design was based on Alesia Glidewell, who also worked with Valve on Portal as a model for the character Chell. However, when the character designs were updated later in development, Zoey was made to resemble actress/model Sonja Kinski instead. Ironically, her name means "life" in Greek. In official media, she is usually seen wielding dual Pistols. Zoey, along with Louis and Francis, appears in Left 4 Dead 2 in the campaign The Passing as they meet with the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors. Unlike her attitude in Left 4 Dead, she comes off as somewhat more serious and, at times, angry. This is probably due to the fact that she is hit very hard by Bill's death. Zoey's facial features are portrayed by Sonja Kinski and she is voiced by Jen Taylor. Official description Background Zoey was once a student at Aldrich in Philadelphia under a scholarship to become a filmmaker. Instead of attending classes, she spent her time watching horror films given to her by her father ranging from zombies, to slasher murderers, to extra terrestrials. Her father, Wade, wished for her to become a police officer like him, often taking her to shooting ranges to get her into some practice. These actions caused tension between her divorced parents one night and started a heated argument between the two regarding their daughter's future. The argument was short lived however when an Infected suddenly found his way into their living room and attacked Zoey's mother, Carolyn. Her father was able to kill the Infected but not before it attacked Zoey's mother. Holding Carolyn in his arms, Wade commanded Zoey to call for an ambulance. Zoey came back to witness her father being mauled by her mother, who quickly noticed her daughter's presence and lunged at her. Before she could reach Zoey however, Wade shot her in the back of the head. His last request was for Zoey to kill him before he became an Infected. She then reached for her father's gun and after a heart breaking "I love you", pulled the trigger. Weeks later, Zoey was shocked to discover that her father may have been a Carrier and the mercy-killing could have been in vain. Relationships with other Survivors Overall, Zoey is perhaps treated the kindest by the other Survivors. *'Bill:' In many ways, Zoey and Bill have a father-daughter sort of relationship. When it is revealed how her parents died, she hugs him for comfort, and she is seen resting on his shoulder in the evacuation vehicle. In general, he seems to become slightly more emotional if Zoey dies''"Aghh...not up Zoey."'' --Bill when compared to the others. She also seems to care about his well-being. In The Passing, unlike Francis and Louis, she rarely talks about Bill's death and seems to have been hit hard by the loss. Her tone and seriousness change when she talks about his death. Her aggressiveness towards the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors might hint at her struggle in coping with Bill's death. *'Francis:' Originally, Valve intended Zoey and Francis to have a relationship, but this was deemed to be "distracting" by the play-testers. In her cut quotes, Zoey picks on him often. "Francis, I know how to cut hair. Just sayin'...if you need it...I'm here." --Zoey. Although their former relationship is no longer very evident, she still seems to be friendly towards him ("Groovy," which was something he'd said before). In The Passing, she's baffled by Rochelle showing an attraction to Francis, and claims she is going to throw up. On the other hand, she finds it cute that Francis still has "that side of him" deep down despite his tough guy attitude when he flirts with Rochelle. *'Louis: '''Zoey tends to tease him from time to time"Louis... You'd look good in one of those hospital gowns.""Hey Louis? Try not to get lost.", and becomes a little more emotional when he dies"Louis! Oh God, I can't believe it!". In The Passing, she shows concern for his injury, mentioning to the ''Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors they have a wounded man up there. *'Coach: '''Zoey and Coach do not have much interaction. Coach though, will sometimes playfully pick on Ellis for his crush on her."You ready to meet Zoey now, Ellis?"'' --Coach *'Ellis:' Zoey seems to like Ellis. She mentions his name the most out of the Survivors and calls out his name twice as he is leaving, wondering if she should have asked him to join her group or gone with him shortly after."Ellis! Ellis! ...Maybe we should have brought him with us?" --Zoey She also sadly states "I'm going to miss Ellis," and "I hope I'll see him again." Zoey will also playfully mimic Ellis' Keith stories as he is leaving."Did I ever tell you about the time my buddy Ellis stole a car from the mall and ran over some zombies?" --Zoey *'Nick:' Zoey and Nick do not get along. He will sometimes insult her at the beginning of The Riverbank, calling her "Cupcake" and asking if there's a "man" up there he can talk to. She'll respond with sarcastic helplessness and then snap "I could shoot you where you stand." or "Go to hell, Colonel Sanders!" (The founder of KFC.) *'Rochelle:' Zoey and Rochelle will often exclaim to each other how they are relieved to find another woman still alive. They compliment or thank the other's Special Infected kills during the finale, and Zoey seems happy to throw her an item. However, she is baffled by the idea that Rochelle has feelings for Francis. Quotes and Captions See: Zoey/Quotes and Captions Notes * In the Campaign posters, Zoey's belt bears different studs from the ones seen in-game. ** Even though Zoey's hairstyle in some posters are consistent with her in-game hairstyle (tied into a ponytail), some posters portrayed her hair as being styled differently. Death Toll's posters showed her hair tied up at a much lower portion and The Last Stand's poster showed her hair as being totally untied. ** She is positioned in the same spot in both the No Mercy and Blood Harvest campaigns, and has the same art design in each as well, besides in No Mercy, where she is crouching. * Zoey is known to be a keen movie fan. Some of her quotes are based around different films: ** On the elevator in Mercy Hospital in No Mercy, sometimes she may make a response to Bill's complaining with "Game over man, game over!", much to his confusion, which Louis laughs at. The quote is referenced from Aliens. ** Right before coming to the church in Death Toll, the Survivors come upon a cabin in the woods. This only occurs as Zoey, but she makes a reference to the 1981 cult classic Evil Dead, saying "Oh, nice, a cabin in the middle of nowhere. I know how this movie ends." SeeCabin01.wav ** In The Passing, when the new Survivors are leaving, she may make a remark of "You finally did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Goddamn you! Goddamn you all to Hell!" which is roughly paraphrased from Planet of the Apes. ** In The Passing, she may alternatively say "Remember, Soylent Green is people!", referencing Soylent Green. * Zoey also seems to have some knowledge of philosophy. In Dead Air, when the Survivors reach the airport lobby and its statue of Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders, she may sarcastically remark "Great! Ayn Rand International Airport," referencing the Objectivist novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand and her novel [[Wikipedia:Atlas Shrugged|''Atlas Shrugged.]] (Francis may respond, "I hate Ayn Rand!"). * Zoey follows a running theme in Jen Taylor's work in which she portrays strong women who undergo extreme stress and begin to show signs of snapping. For example: Cortana in ''Halo 2 begins to act erratic after Cairo Station is nearly destroyed, claiming to "like crazy". In F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, as Lt. Stokes, after Top is killed, she experiences a breakdown and begins pacing back and forth and swearing, unable to handle the situation. In Left 4 Dead, she reacts badly to the Common Infecteds' enhanced mobility and tries to claim "zombie bullshit". Afterward, she begins giggling nervously. Generic26.wav * Zoey is referred to as 'teenangst' in the Left 4 Dead's game files. She is called 'teengirl' in Left 4 Dead 2's game files. * In every poster Zoey only has a Pistol except for The Sacrifice where she is holding an Assault Rifle . * Zoey has several animations unique to her: ** When she heals using a first aid kit, she appears to bite out a piece of the strap while the others simply wraps it around their arms and thighs (the others do this too, but only when crouching. Zoey, however, has only one crouched healing animation while the others have two). ** When she is healing a fellow Survivor, she seems to be reaching out for them while the others move closer to the teammate. The same animation is used when reviving an incapacitated teammate above her chest level. ** When she is incapacitated, she flies in mid-air slightly (similar to being punched by a Tank) before dropping onto the ground, unlike the others who simply drop down. ** She possess unique animations when snared by a Smoker's tongue. While being dragged away, she seems to struggle less, most likely due to the tongue being too strong for her. When being hung, she will stop struggling for a few seconds every once in a while, probably due to exhaustion. However, she uses the same animation as the other Survivors when dragged all the way to the Smoker. The tongue itself has unique animations connected with Zoey. ** In third-person, she doesn't cock the Assault Rifle, but hits the magazine a second time after reloading. The first-person animation is the same as the one of the other Survivors. ** In Left 4 Dead 2, a Death Animation has been discovered of her lying on her side, along with the usual animation of falling on her back. When defibbed however, she will instantly flip onto her back during the process, presumably due to no such support for this animation. * In an early trailer, Zoey was incapacitated, then killed by a Tank. * The pin on Zoey's belt buckle faces the wrong way. The buckle would not work correctly the way it is made. * Zoey is the shortest Survivor of the four originals. Scaled visual analysis of her image in relation to datum environmental items of known height or length firearms, coded railings indicate she is approximately 5'6" 1.67m tall. The average height for a North American woman aged 20-29 is recorded by the National Center for Health Statistics as 5'4½" 1.64m. Sonja Kinski after whom aspects of Zoey's physique were modeled is given in many sources as 5'6½" 1.69m. * Zoey bears a small resemblance to Claire Redfield from the ''Resident Evil'' series. * Zoey was picked by the 56% (and so, the most voted one) of Left 4 Dead 2 players who voted in Week 15's survey as "the thing you would pick to be besides from you on a boat to an Infected free island". * Zoey was picked by 34% of PC players and 28% of Xbox 360 players for Week 19's survey, "Whose back story are you most interested in?", earning 1st and 2nd place accordingly in comparison to the other Survivors and platform. ** Also, she is the most-favorite survivor for the PC-players and second to most favorite one on Xbox 360, beaten by Ellis. * Her father's death by his own pistol may hint at why Zoey often prefers to use pistols. ** Ironically, it is suggested by the doctor at Millhaven that her father may have been immune, as he believes the trait is carried on the father's side. *** If the Carrier gene is indeed exclusively passed down on the father's side (Y chromosome), women could not inherit the gene; Thus , this idea is most likely wrong. ****It is possible that the carrier gene is linked to an X chromosome and is a recessive trait. This would mean that Zoey's mother would need to have had one normal gene linked to one of her X chromosomes and one carrier linked to her other X chromosome. This would explain why there are seemingly more male carriers than female carriers, however, this would discredit what the doctor claimed. Because the Y chromosome does not typically have any genes linked to it, only one X chromosome with carrier gene would be needed to determine if a male is a carrier, this however, would mean that the mother would be the factor that transfers the carrier gene to the son. Both parents would need to pass on an X chromosome with a carrier gene linked to it to make a female a carrier. Behind the Scenes Zoey sounded older in early footage of the game. See this video for an example. Gallery File:Zoeyz.jpg|Head shot of Zoey. File:Picture.jpg|Concept art of beta Zoey. File:20080505172535.jpg|Zoey in-game during development stage. File:L4d-art-zoey-zombies.jpg|Concept art of Zoey during the development stage. File:Ym08.jpg|Zoey' face model, Sonja Kinski. 226voice_over_jen_taylor_06.jpg|Jen Taylor, Zoey's voice actress. Left4dead2 2010-08-23 21-48-35-23.jpg|Zoey lying on her back alongside Rochelle and Francis via Server-side Mods. Left4dead2 2010-08-23 18-43-24-92.jpg|Zoey's other Death Animation of her lying on her side. Note the Defibrillator Marker around her. L4dpg21-1.jpg|Zoey as she appears in-comic References Category:The Survivors Category:Left 4 Dead